


Beautiful

by Artemis1000



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: AI/Human Relationships, F/M, Post-Episode: s02e13 Land of the Lost, Romantic Fluff, Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-25
Updated: 2018-06-25
Packaged: 2019-05-20 14:20:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 538
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14896184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Artemis1000/pseuds/Artemis1000
Summary: Gideon is beautiful to Rip, no matter what.





	Beautiful

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Aboyandhisstarship](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aboyandhisstarship/gifts).



“Trust me, Gideon, you’re beautiful.”

“Technically, Captain…”

He silences her with a touch, his hand gliding over the control panel in the closest to a caress they can come in the waking world, where she is once more the ship’s disembodied voice and he is as finitely human as ever.

His eyes rest on the floating grey head of her hologram. If he closed his eyes, he would once more see the brunette human who had given him strength and hope while he was a captive in his own mind.

He doesn’t close his eyes to reality now and says, voice brisk, “No. You’re always beautiful to me.” His steps are hurried as he stalks towards the Waverider’s pilot’s chair.

With them in a race against time and the Legion of Doom, it’s rare to catch Gideon alone on the bridge. Yet he feels closer to her here, with the many displays and controls and the holographic projector, than anywhere else on the ship. She feels more tangible to him in here, the fact they had shared a kiss not quite so much like a wishful fever dream.

Rip opens his mouth to keep going, to tell her… He isn’t even sure where to start, and maybe that’s the problem. He can be so very eloquent with others, yet he’s never known what to tell her, or how to tell her, and if she hadn’t brought up their kiss he would have simply considered _them_ another loss he had to accept without complaint.

His fingers caress over another panel, he knows it’s more for his own sake than hers but he can pretend and so he will. “It doesn’t matter in what form you exist, Gideon. You have always protected me, you have remained at my side when everything seemed lost.”

“What you wish to say is, when you pushed away everybody else.” Gideon’s voice sounds no different from any other time she speaks and provides technical data as a ship AI should, yet Rip chooses to believe he can hear a teasing undertone to her voice. There’s a moment of hesitation, maybe an eternity to an AI. “I am glad to be at your side, Captain.”

He shakes his head sharply, overcome by some shapeless, wordless frustration. His eyes find the hologram once more. “Is that what we still are, Gideon?” he asks.

“Clarify.”

“Are we just Captain and ship AI?” It is his turn to hesitate. They have barely spoken of their kiss once, and never since. They know of their feelings for another. It should be enough, except there are so many dangers ahead of them, such a high likelihood of defeat… and Rip knows from bitter experience that you regret nothing as bitterly as the things that remained unsaid. It is a lesson he doesn’t want to have driven home once more.

“Is that still all we are after the kiss we shared, Gideon?” he prods.

“Have we ever been just Captain and AI, Rip?” This time, there can be no mistaking the teasing in her voice.

Rip squeezes the edge of the console fondly and barks a laugh, and then his fingers smooth over the display with such gentleness again. “Never, Gideon. Never.”


End file.
